<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><title>GNUcode.me</title><id>https://gnucode.me/feeds/tags/PinePhone.xml</id><subtitle>Tag: PinePhone</subtitle><updated>2023-05-12T11:47:31Z</updated><link href="gnucode.me/feeds/tags/PinePhone.xml" rel="self" /><link href="gnucode.me" /><entry><title>The PinePhone Mostly Works</title><id>https://gnucode.me/the-pinephone-mostly-works.html</id><author><name>Joshua Branson</name><email>jbranso@dismail.de</email></author><updated>2022-03-02T05:40:00Z</updated><link href="https://gnucode.me/the-pinephone-mostly-works.html" rel="alternate" /><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;So I now have some more issues with the PinePhone.  Namely, my phone no longer
receives SMS text messages.  I used to be able to use the PinePhone as a simple
dump phone that supported calls and texts.  But about a month ago, when I wrote
&lt;a href=&quot;https://gnucode.me/the-pinephone-works.html&quot;&gt;The PinePhone works&lt;/a&gt;, suddenly my
PinePhone stopped receiving SMS text messages.  I can still send SMS texts, but
I no longer receieve them, which
is weird.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I thought I might be able to fix it, if I installed the reversed engineered and
nearly free custom firmware for the PinePhone’s modem (You can find this
modem on “Biktorgj” github account). It was actually super easy to
install said open source modem:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;wget https://whatever/the/path/to/download/github/is
tar xzvf package.tar.gz
su
./flashall&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;p&gt;When I ran the &lt;code&gt;./flashall&lt;/code&gt; script, the modem disappeared from the task bar, and
a few moments later it reappeared.  I also followed most of the instructions for
the recommened settings for the modem on the github page.  I will say that the
call volume is a little low, but I have always thought that was the case.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Work is ok with me having a phone that only supports calls for now, but I do
feel annoyed that I used to have a phone that works as well as a dumb phone, and
now I do not seem to have that.  I suppose that I will have to post in the
PinePhone forum and Mobian forum and get some advice.  Other possible solutions
include moving to a different cellular provider.  AT&amp;amp;T is one of the reccomended
providers, and it costs about 30 dollars a month.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It might also not be a bad idea to edit the official PinePhone wiki and mention
that Tello is a fairly cheap provider (the cheapest that I could find), provided
you are ok with just calls. I think the Tello SIM card only cost me $1.&lt;/p&gt;</summary></entry><entry><title>The PinePhone Works</title><id>https://gnucode.me/the-pinephone-works.html</id><author><name>Joshua Branson</name><email>jbranso@dismail.de</email></author><updated>2022-02-01T10:40:00Z</updated><link href="https://gnucode.me/the-pinephone-works.html" rel="alternate" /><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;I have had my PinePhone for about three months now, and it has been a fairly
pleasant experience. I decided to use Mobian and Purism’s gnome shell “phosh”,
which seems to be the most popular interface for the PinePhone.  It is nice to
see that I can apply updates almost daily.  I am glad that the Mobian devs are
working hard to diligently update the phone’s software.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I am using Tello and &lt;a href=&quot;https://jmp.chat&quot;&gt;jmp.chat&lt;/a&gt; as my service providers. Tello is a traditional
cellular provider, and jmp.chat is a free software cellular provider using XMPP.
My Tello number works pretty much anywhere, and jmp.chat works whenever I have
wifi. Tello costs me $8 per month (no data plan), and jmp.chat costs me $3 per
month. An $11 bill per month with two numbers is not so bad!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The default texting application “chatty”, works really well (also developed by
Purism). It will crash once every three weeks or so, but that’s not that bad. It
shows me my SMS messages and my JMP.chat XMPP messages. I personally have not
tried to switch to another SMS/XMPP application, because I do not believe there
is any other application that is as well polished as chatty. However, I am
running into the annoying issue, that my JMP.chat number is getting a ton of
span from Russian bots. And it seems that chatty does not support blocking
numbers. So I have to use another program to block random XMPP accounts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I am noticing some weird (and to be expected) issues with the PinePhone. Namely,
the wifi is a bit wonky. Sometimes I have to reboot to get the wifi to work.
Luckily, there is some work on reverse engineering the wifi linux module. I am
not currently using that kernel module, but it is out there in the wild.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The battery does not seem to last as long as I would expect. If I am browsing
the internet, then I can almost see the internet drain as I use the phone. I am
also finding out that I do not receive SMS messages that are sent when my phone
is off.  That is &lt;em&gt;mildly&lt;/em&gt; annoying.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But hey, the phone works! If work did not require me to have a phone, then I
would NOT have one. BUT I am greatful that I do not have to suffer in silence
and use Android or a dumb phone. So if you want a “smart/dumb phone”, and you
are ok with the occassional instability, then the PinePhone might be for you!&lt;/p&gt;</summary></entry></feed>